PORT ANGELES — Back when Bob Sheedy began coaching track and field, sawdust filled the high jump and pole vault pits, races were timed by stopwatches and girls were just getting their start in the sport.
When Sheedy retired last year, the sawdust had been replaced by high-tech foam padding, the stopwatches replaced with computer timing and girls were thriving in the sport. And in the interim he coached several Roughriders to state championships.
Sheedy coached for 46 years at Port Angeles High School, retiring in 2018. A little more than a year after retiring, he found out that he was being inducted into the Port Angeles Roughrider Hall of Fame.
Now, this past week, Sheedy has discovered he is also being inducted into the Washington State Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame.
“It’s quite exciting. It’s not something I had expected,” Sheedy said. “It tells me longevity has an advantage.”
“It’s been a long trip from sawdust to the fancy foam,” Sheedy said.
Another one of the big changes from those early days is kids today can learn a lot of good track and field techniques from their computers, Sheedy said. There are plenty of great tutorials on YouTube that kids can take advantage of now.
Sheedy still does some volunteer coaching as an asisstant for the Port Angeles Track and Field team.
Sheedy literally built the girls’ track and field program at Port Angeles High School up from scratch. Right when he became the Roughriders’ track coach is when Title IX guaranteed equal access and funding for federally funded girls and women’s sports programs.
“That was one of the biggest changes in coaching. Suddenly, girls were doing track, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize the girls were so good’,” Sheedy said.
One of his biggest early stars was Sherry Felton, who went on to the University of Washington in the 1970s where she jumped the high jump and played basketball for the Huskies. She was part of the inaugural class of the Port Angeles Roughrider Hall of Fame.
Since then, he has coached state track and field champions such as Gracie Long (2018) and Millie Long (2019) both as a head coach and as an assistant. And more than 80 boys and girls were on the Riders’ track team last year.
Part of Sheedy’s legacy in Port Angeles not only was building up the track program, but keeping all the records, something he learned the importance of from old swim coach Don Fairbairn. It wasn’t an easy task. He spent three to four years going through old sports sections on microfilm at the library finding the school records in all the track and field events.
But what Sheedy enjoys the most about coaching isn’t the records, “but the relationship with the kids.”
Sheedy said that while he’s honored by the Washington state hall of fame nod, the Port Angeles Roughrider Hall of Fame honor “was a bigger thrill than the state” hall of fame. Sheedy is really impressed with the Roughrider event that is held every April at the Vern Burton center.
Sheedy will be inducted into the state hall of fame during a Jan. 17 ceremony at the Hotel Murano in Tacoma.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
